I'm trying to think of a name for an irish band I'm setting up. I'd love to use an irish word, but I only know how to pronounce a few select words. I was looking at Saoirse (one I can pronounce) but apparently that's already been taken.
Can anyone tell me how to phonetically pronounce any of these words:
Hey Roisin, I'm not trying to be rude here, (perish the thought!) just curious you understand, but why, if nobody in your band can speak Irish, would you want to have an Irish Name?
It seems to me that it'll only cause you embarrassment later on as folks who come to see you will probably just automatically assume you can speak Irish!
I wonder, is anyone in your band actually Irish?
If not, would you not then be far better off choosing a name which perhaps had something to do with where you are from yourselves?
Or should you perhaps not use the name of one of your favourite tunes instead?
At the end of the day though, it's not the name which is most important, but rather your material & if that is great, then folks won't really care that much what you call yourselves!
I'd go for a one or two word, kinda snappy title myself & I'm sure other folks here, with younger, sharper minds, will have some excellent ideas for you.
Some will no doubt recommend that you do go for an Irish name after all.
All I'm doing is giving you food for thought.
GOOD LUCK with your name hunting.
It makes a pleasant change from 'name calling', of which there has been quite enough of, on this site - recently!
Related to your first one - one of my favourite words is spéirling, also thunderstorm. Which I think'd be pronounced shpairling (might be more user-friendly in England).
I think yours are pronounced thirnyech - 'ch' as in loch and the 'th' somewhere between the English t and English th, I mean, you have to sort of spit the 'th' sound. Shee-uh-chauna (ditto the ch) and Kow-chyul, again ditto the 'ch'- it's not quite a k sound.
Some interesting ideas from S1obhan & cos, but bear in mind the non gael will not know how to pronounce or spell your bands name, nor will promoters, club & event organisers etc.
Not life threatening I agree, but worth thinking about before you do go down that road.
As a non gael myself, I look at these words & they mean nothing to me so when I look at turn-yock, she-a-kan-ah & ko-kyole. These words could be Indian or Japanese for all I know.
Saibhreas & spéirling are more pleasing on my eye & possibly my ear too, but once again, who would ever remember how to spell them?
No offence to S1obhan & cos, it's brilliant that they came forward with ideas & suggestions!
I just wonder if anyone out there has any good names in English, preferably with some associations with your part of the country, but if not just good sounding names.
These would then give you something to compare with the Gaelic names you already have, those you have been given here & others, folk might send in.
Good band names in Irish, for me, are names like 'Solus', 'Danu' & 'Ossian' which are both snappy, & easy to spell.
Good names in English which English based bands have used, include 'The London Lasses'.
If you were interested in going for a tune name, you could check the tune search area here.
So for example, if you were an all girl group there are 74 names of tunes with lasses in the title.
Or, is there a strong local dialect in your area?
If so, why not take your name from an unusual word from that, which has some meaning for you & your group.
At the end of the day (to coin a phrase) as S1obhan says, you will call your group what you want, but you did ask for advice & ideas and when you ask for something on this site, you don't always get what you want, but you can be sure the answers are often thought provoking & interesting.
When my session mates and I started doing gigs, we called ourselves Sacheo, irish for "In the fog" (from the tune, Sean Sacheo), which we thought appropraitely summed up our collective capacity for remembering tunes in mid flight.
True to Dick's concerns above, the local venues had no idea how to spell it, even when we wrote it down for them. The local concert hall couldn't figure it out, so all the promo stuff (posters, tickets, newspaper ads) for our first big night listed us as "[Guitar player's name] and Friends." We still tease him about that--imagine the backer getting to be the frontman! The banter we'd use on stage went: "People ask us what 'Sacheo' means, and it's quite simple, really. It's Irish for The [guitar player's name] Band."
One pub finally gave up and advertised us simply as The Fog, which had a vaguely London underground punk ring to it. I found out about this when I spotted a flyer stapled to a telephone pole downtown adverstising "Irish music by The Fog," and at first I wondered who the new local Irish band was. Then it crept up on me that it might be us. Sure enough, we (as in Sacheo) had a gig that night which one band member had booked weeks in advance and then forgotten to tell the rest of us about. Sets were hastily assembled and phone calls made.
Sean Smyth gave me a lenghty lesson in how to pronounce our band name, but I never did get it right to his satisfaction. That led to more stage patter, teaching the audience how to pronounce sacheo--suh-KAY-oh, shu-kay-OH, shu-kyOH, and my personal favorite, SUCK-ee-oh. Well....it made for a good time filler when someone broke a string.
I've always liked the name of the band (are they still together?) from, I believe, southern California: Ursh Murkins (say it out loud and think Texas drawl).
And that reminds me of a friend of a friend who played bass in a West Coast USA grunge band. They called themselves Fated, but the bass player thought that was too corny. So we helped him come up with near-homonyms: Faded, Feted, Feta, and the best: Fetid....
'The Moving McLeods' was the name of an Aberdeen group, many moons ago, which featured no less than three session.org-ers, namely Kenny, Ron P & your friendly neighbourhood 'White Grouse'.
Unfortunately, the only folk that understood the name were musicians, but we liked it, & that's important.
Out here in the middle of the US of A, folks have trouble enough pronouncing American English so that they can understand one another. <GG>
Most of our local players have been asked to 'play gigs' at one time or another, so a lot of band names were tried out, and of course, folks started with nice, mellifluous, poetic or mystical Irish words. Early on, some used -two- (repeat the adjectives in the previous sentence here) Irish words.
The responses were both hilarious and pathetic.
Now, you're not in the US of A, so it may be easier to keep unfamiliar folks from injuring themselves (and the band!) on unfamiliar verbiage, but I'd suggest that you try some stuff in English.
We knew we needed a new band name for a while, and we were really stuck for one. Min and I were traveling in Ireland and we were asking about band names (esp. for trad bands in the US of A), talking about the band and playing folks some little recordings. We were way out in the country, and those folks felt that the standard one-word name in Irish was either tired or pretentious for us. We stumbled on the name Culchies when some rowdies were cursing at us as we carried our instruments to a session in Co. Meath, and one of their epithets hurled at us was "culchies". We tried that on some friends there and it got laughs, and, it's pretty appropriate to living and playing in Indiana farmlands, so it stuck.
Amurricuns are still unsure of this odd word sometimes, but it's a lot easier to explain (especially when doing business) than an Irish word.
This ain't much direct help, but good luck and have fun with the name!
From Ptarmigan: "I wonder, is anyone in your band actually Irish? If not, would you not then be far better off choosing a name which perhaps had something to do with where you are from yourselves?"
Unfortunatly, you can see where this logic is heading. "Would it not be better to choose some music that has something to do with where you are from?"
Not at all Michael. For example the London Lasses is a great name for a group & indicates that there is an English connection & an Irish music one too. Things don't need to be just black or white or exclusive.
To perfectly honest, if we were searching for a completely accurate name, our band would become "A mostly Scot protestant, a mostly Scots-Irish protestant, an Irish Catholic, and a French-Greman Jehovah's Witness, with a French-Irish pagan dancer, who play mostly Irish but some Scottish and American music."
It sounds more like the set up for a joke than a band.....
One of the best "altered" Irish band names I ever saw was The Fleadh Ceolboys. Even better, it's taken from a very funny song for which I'm still trying to track down the lyrics: "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Turn Into Fleadh Ceolboys."
We're not born in Ireland no, but 3 out of 4 of us are of Irish parentage (2nd generation irish) and 2 out of 4 have been brought (or possibly dragged I'm not sure) up through Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. Dunno if you've heard of them? I've competed in the Fleadhanna since I was ooooh 11 (bout 6 years). I can speak a little Irish but no so much as to be completely certain of my pronunciation (what with most of it being through tapes) and I can understand more than I speak because quite confusingly at the Fleadhanna (particularly the All-Ireland) they seem to fluctuate between Irish and English in their adjudications and I end up translating for my Mum.
I was thinking that an irish name might just make it sound a little more professional cos I've been in those bands with jokey names and after a while you get a little tired of them.
I know another source of names is tune names- but I can't think of any good ones that would work. Any ideas?
Btw thanks for everyone's input about the pronuciation of those top couple of words, if anyone else can think of anymore they'd be very welcome as I'm compiling a list of possibles at the mo.
They're based aroung south Sligo area cos I've got a friend there and she knows Colm O'Donnell and I met his daughter (think it's Siobhan) at last year's All-Ireland Fleadh where I know for deff she won the lilting.
I meant Trasna! Scunner it! Victim of the Goidelic transposition of consonants!
There is the danger of being called "Trashna". Some scots would pronounce it that way in any case. But the Transposition bit had me thinking. My parent kept a Drapers shop in Belfast. People would come in for a bit of Elaskit. You could be the Elaskit Band. Okay, I'm done.
Someone called Roisin is probably well used to mispronunciations & isn't out off by that. It only has to go in your promotion pack with your demo/CD. It's a little test of regard.
I think at least for the British market, promoters like names to reflect exactly what's in the tin. eg the name Danu ticks that box for the clueless in the way North Cregg doesn't. So it does make you sound more professional in the sense that you know what the market is. If you chose an edgy name like, oh,
I don't know, Electric Shock Treatment, it'd sound a bit like you were in the wrong music.
Names really cluster - there's a book which shows that girls called Cressida are statistically more likely to have brothers called Rufus, etc. In the House of Lords there's peer pressure to have names which are in line with their station - so to choose Lord Westminster or something grand would be a bit frowned upon compared with Lord Stoke Newington. There was a fashion a couple of years back for indie bands to be called 'The' names like The Music, The Killers and The The. So I'd guess there are the same focal names in Irish music & the same politics about whether you're choosing a name you 'deserve'.
A young band which wants to play seriously, with an Irish repertoire, is probably right have an Irish-sounding name. Like M/ise. A British-based duo changed their name from Chord to Luasca which sounded much more 'right'. One friend had a ceilidh band called 'The Floozies' which also did exactly what it said on the tin - they were playing for dancing not Arts Centre-type audiences. Young British Folk acts try & convey a funky-but-not-too-punky image.
By the way: if Roisin plays fiddle among lots of other stuff, her first solo album, if she makes one, could be called Roisin the Bow!!
As Compton McKenzie wrote in "The Monarch Of The Glen" (nothing to do with the BBC series,by the way) people who crack on that they can pronounce Gallic only get away with it because nobody else can.
I've heard of a band up Wester Ross way called "Cach Mòr". I don't know if you have the same word in Irish, but it's equivelant in Scots is Keech (not sure of the "correct" spelling here).
Getting away from Gaelic names and traditional music, I remember hearing of bands called:
Zanusi and the frigidaires
Carry Grant and the rest can walk
Stockton's other wing
etc.
PS dafydd, are you taking the p*ss or serious about your spelling there of "Gallic"?
Och Man, yer far tae saft there Ron. Come on, Get tore intae him! After all, with a name like his, he must be able to speak Welsh - surely, so has no excuse!
There's also a great line in Whisky Galore, when the stuck up Sasanach raises his glass of Malt & says something like "Slange something or other" & the wee Islander replies sarcastically, in a lovely soft, West Highland accent "Aye, sure you have the Gaelic fine". Cracks me up every time I see it!
Pronouncing Irish
Pronouncing Irish
Hi!
I'm trying to think of a name for an irish band I'm setting up. I'd love to use an irish word, but I only know how to pronounce a few select words. I was looking at Saoirse (one I can pronounce) but apparently that's already been taken.
Can anyone tell me how to phonetically pronounce any of these words:
toirneach (thunderstorm)
síochána (peace)
comhcheol (harmony)
Btw, if anyone's got any good ideas I'm always open.
Thanks
Roisin xx
# Posted on October 3rd 2005 by RoisinB
Re: Pronouncing Irish
turn-yock or in Ulster more like torn-ya
she-a-kan-ah
ko-kyole
`Saibhreas `would be nice for a band-meaning wealth or richness-pronounced sev-riss
hope this helps!
# Posted on October 3rd 2005 by cos
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Hey Roisin, I'm not trying to be rude here, (perish the thought!) just curious you understand, but why, if nobody in your band can speak Irish, would you want to have an Irish Name?
It seems to me that it'll only cause you embarrassment later on as folks who come to see you will probably just automatically assume you can speak Irish!
I wonder, is anyone in your band actually Irish?
If not, would you not then be far better off choosing a name which perhaps had something to do with where you are from yourselves?
Or should you perhaps not use the name of one of your favourite tunes instead?
At the end of the day though, it's not the name which is most important, but rather your material & if that is great, then folks won't really care that much what you call yourselves!
I'd go for a one or two word, kinda snappy title myself & I'm sure other folks here, with younger, sharper minds, will have some excellent ideas for you.
Some will no doubt recommend that you do go for an Irish name after all.
All I'm doing is giving you food for thought.
GOOD LUCK with your name hunting.
It makes a pleasant change from 'name calling', of which there has been quite enough of, on this site - recently!
# Posted on October 3rd 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Related to your first one - one of my favourite words is spéirling, also thunderstorm. Which I think'd be pronounced shpairling (might be more user-friendly in England).
I think yours are pronounced thirnyech - 'ch' as in loch and the 'th' somewhere between the English t and English th, I mean, you have to sort of spit the 'th' sound. Shee-uh-chauna (ditto the ch) and Kow-chyul, again ditto the 'ch'- it's not quite a k sound.
I'm prepared to be corrected though!
# Posted on October 3rd 2005 by S1obhan
Re: Pronouncing Irish
And call yourselves whatever you want. It's your band & it's always nice to see Irish out there.
# Posted on October 3rd 2005 by S1obhan
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Some interesting ideas from S1obhan & cos, but bear in mind the non gael will not know how to pronounce or spell your bands name, nor will promoters, club & event organisers etc.
Not life threatening I agree, but worth thinking about before you do go down that road.
As a non gael myself, I look at these words & they mean nothing to me so when I look at turn-yock, she-a-kan-ah & ko-kyole. These words could be Indian or Japanese for all I know.
Saibhreas & spéirling are more pleasing on my eye & possibly my ear too, but once again, who would ever remember how to spell them?
No offence to S1obhan & cos, it's brilliant that they came forward with ideas & suggestions!
I just wonder if anyone out there has any good names in English, preferably with some associations with your part of the country, but if not just good sounding names.
These would then give you something to compare with the Gaelic names you already have, those you have been given here & others, folk might send in.
Good band names in Irish, for me, are names like 'Solus', 'Danu' & 'Ossian' which are both snappy, & easy to spell.
Good names in English which English based bands have used, include 'The London Lasses'.
If you were interested in going for a tune name, you could check the tune search area here.
So for example, if you were an all girl group there are 74 names of tunes with lasses in the title.
Or, is there a strong local dialect in your area?
If so, why not take your name from an unusual word from that, which has some meaning for you & your group.
At the end of the day (to coin a phrase) as S1obhan says, you will call your group what you want, but you did ask for advice & ideas and when you ask for something on this site, you don't always get what you want, but you can be sure the answers are often thought provoking & interesting.
Or, if not, I would ask for my money back!
Once again - Good Luck
# Posted on October 3rd 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Pronouncing Irish
When my session mates and I started doing gigs, we called ourselves Sacheo, irish for "In the fog" (from the tune, Sean Sacheo), which we thought appropraitely summed up our collective capacity for remembering tunes in mid flight.
True to Dick's concerns above, the local venues had no idea how to spell it, even when we wrote it down for them. The local concert hall couldn't figure it out, so all the promo stuff (posters, tickets, newspaper ads) for our first big night listed us as "[Guitar player's name] and Friends." We still tease him about that--imagine the backer getting to be the frontman! The banter we'd use on stage went: "People ask us what 'Sacheo' means, and it's quite simple, really. It's Irish for The [guitar player's name] Band."
One pub finally gave up and advertised us simply as The Fog, which had a vaguely London underground punk ring to it. I found out about this when I spotted a flyer stapled to a telephone pole downtown adverstising "Irish music by The Fog," and at first I wondered who the new local Irish band was. Then it crept up on me that it might be us. Sure enough, we (as in Sacheo) had a gig that night which one band member had booked weeks in advance and then forgotten to tell the rest of us about. Sets were hastily assembled and phone calls made.
Sean Smyth gave me a lenghty lesson in how to pronounce our band name, but I never did get it right to his satisfaction. That led to more stage patter, teaching the audience how to pronounce sacheo--suh-KAY-oh, shu-kay-OH, shu-kyOH, and my personal favorite, SUCK-ee-oh. Well....it made for a good time filler when someone broke a string.
I've always liked the name of the band (are they still together?) from, I believe, southern California: Ursh Murkins (say it out loud and think Texas drawl).
# Posted on October 3rd 2005 by Will Harmon
Re: Pronouncing Irish
And that reminds me of a friend of a friend who played bass in a West Coast USA grunge band. They called themselves Fated, but the bass player thought that was too corny. So we helped him come up with near-homonyms: Faded, Feted, Feta, and the best: Fetid....
# Posted on October 3rd 2005 by Will Harmon
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Some Irish lads I knew in Edinburgh called their band Mulligan's Tyres. If you don't get it, see http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display.php/7925
Not very pretentious, not many folk got the joke, but they did okay for gigs...
# Posted on October 3rd 2005 by kris
Re: Pronouncing Irish
'The Moving McLeods' was the name of an Aberdeen group, many moons ago, which featured no less than three session.org-ers, namely Kenny, Ron P & your friendly neighbourhood 'White Grouse'.
Unfortunately, the only folk that understood the name were musicians, but we liked it, & that's important.
# Posted on October 3rd 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Out here in the middle of the US of A, folks have trouble enough pronouncing American English so that they can understand one another. <GG>
Most of our local players have been asked to 'play gigs' at one time or another, so a lot of band names were tried out, and of course, folks started with nice, mellifluous, poetic or mystical Irish words. Early on, some used -two- (repeat the adjectives in the previous sentence here) Irish words.
The responses were both hilarious and pathetic.
Now, you're not in the US of A, so it may be easier to keep unfamiliar folks from injuring themselves (and the band!) on unfamiliar verbiage, but I'd suggest that you try some stuff in English.
We knew we needed a new band name for a while, and we were really stuck for one. Min and I were traveling in Ireland and we were asking about band names (esp. for trad bands in the US of A), talking about the band and playing folks some little recordings. We were way out in the country, and those folks felt that the standard one-word name in Irish was either tired or pretentious for us. We stumbled on the name Culchies when some rowdies were cursing at us as we carried our instruments to a session in Co. Meath, and one of their epithets hurled at us was "culchies". We tried that on some friends there and it got laughs, and, it's pretty appropriate to living and playing in Indiana farmlands, so it stuck.
Amurricuns are still unsure of this odd word sometimes, but it's a lot easier to explain (especially when doing business) than an Irish word.
This ain't much direct help, but good luck and have fun with the name!
stv
http://cdbaby.com/Culchies
# Posted on October 3rd 2005 by stv culchie
Re: Pronouncing Irish
The best Irish band name has got to be Pogue Mahone. Not too hard to say, and meaningful.
What's the Gaelic for "talentless hack?" I have a "gig" coming up at a local Hibernian club and am in need of a stage name. . .
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by wormdiet
Re: Pronouncing Irish
We have used Hold the Mayo for various festival bands over the years. If anyone likes it, feel free to use it - no copyright.
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by John Culhane
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Many years ago a bunch of us did support for De Danann as "The Boys of the Shough". I suppose only fellow northerners will get that.
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by LongNote
Re: Pronouncing Irish
I formed a group with 2 other lads and went out as "The Tree Fellers"......not many people got that either!!!
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by mikemcdaid
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Then of course there's that old favourite for a five piece which includes a Richard - "Dick & the Four Skins"!
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Pronouncing Irish
That last would not, I suppose, be of much use to a Klezmer group!
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Are you still there RoisinB? Has any of this advice been of any help to you? Or has it just confused you even more?
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Pronouncing Irish
From Ptarmigan: "I wonder, is anyone in your band actually Irish? If not, would you not then be far better off choosing a name which perhaps had something to do with where you are from yourselves?"
Unfortunatly, you can see where this logic is heading. "Would it not be better to choose some music that has something to do with where you are from?"
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by llig leahcim
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Not at all Michael. For example the London Lasses is a great name for a group & indicates that there is an English connection & an Irish music one too. Things don't need to be just black or white or exclusive.
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Pronouncing Irish
But what if there is no connection?
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by llig leahcim
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Then call it "No Connetion"
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by Hugo Chavez
Re: Pronouncing Irish
not bad, I like it
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by llig leahcim
Re: Pronouncing Irish
You could call it "Folk of the Latter View", then you could say it was nationality-neutral, but sounds distinctly Irish when you say it quickly.
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by Q
Re: Pronouncing Irish
To perfectly honest, if we were searching for a completely accurate name, our band would become "A mostly Scot protestant, a mostly Scots-Irish protestant, an Irish Catholic, and a French-Greman Jehovah's Witness, with a French-Irish pagan dancer, who play mostly Irish but some Scottish and American music."
It sounds more like the set up for a joke than a band.....
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by AlBrown
Re: Pronouncing Irish
One of the best "altered" Irish band names I ever saw was The Fleadh Ceolboys. Even better, it's taken from a very funny song for which I'm still trying to track down the lyrics: "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Turn Into Fleadh Ceolboys."
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by sts
Re: Pronouncing Irish
ull track it down easily enough, there have been references to it on this site.
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by Hugo Chavez
Re: Pronouncing Irish
How about 'The Border Collies'. There's one in Ireland, and one in the States - it's about time England had one too...
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by Ottery
Re: Pronouncing Irish
The Border Corgis
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Or the Quarter Bourgeois....
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by Will Harmon
Re: Pronouncing Irish
We're not born in Ireland no, but 3 out of 4 of us are of Irish parentage (2nd generation irish) and 2 out of 4 have been brought (or possibly dragged I'm not sure) up through Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. Dunno if you've heard of them? I've competed in the Fleadhanna since I was ooooh 11 (bout 6 years). I can speak a little Irish but no so much as to be completely certain of my pronunciation (what with most of it being through tapes) and I can understand more than I speak because quite confusingly at the Fleadhanna (particularly the All-Ireland) they seem to fluctuate between Irish and English in their adjudications and I end up translating for my Mum.
I was thinking that an irish name might just make it sound a little more professional cos I've been in those bands with jokey names and after a while you get a little tired of them.
I know another source of names is tune names- but I can't think of any good ones that would work. Any ideas?
Btw thanks for everyone's input about the pronuciation of those top couple of words, if anyone else can think of anymore they'd be very welcome as I'm compiling a list of possibles at the mo.
Thanks!
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by RoisinB
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Oh yeah, I know the border collies in Ireland.
They're based aroung south Sligo area cos I've got a friend there and she knows Colm O'Donnell and I met his daughter (think it's Siobhan) at last year's All-Ireland Fleadh where I know for deff she won the lilting.
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by RoisinB
Re: Pronouncing Irish
What about Trasna? It's dead easy to pronouce too.
I'm not sure how much it actually means though. My Gran and Grandad's cottage in Derry was called Carrow Trasna and Trasna just means across.
I suppose we could say that we're playing the music ACROSS the sea from Ireland.
Dunno, but I'd appreciate some feedback on this idea
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by RoisinB
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Transa sounds good. And you could always become a bus company if the mood took you.
"Rogha" would be favourite...
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by Innocent Bystander
Re: Pronouncing Irish
I meant Trasna! Scunner it! Victim of the Goidelic transposition of consonants!
There is the danger of being called "Trashna". Some scots would pronounce it that way in any case. But the Transposition bit had me thinking. My parent kept a Drapers shop in Belfast. People would come in for a bit of Elaskit. You could be the Elaskit Band. Okay, I'm done.
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by Innocent Bystander
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Someone called Roisin is probably well used to mispronunciations & isn't out off by that. It only has to go in your promotion pack with your demo/CD. It's a little test of regard.
I think at least for the British market, promoters like names to reflect exactly what's in the tin. eg the name Danu ticks that box for the clueless in the way North Cregg doesn't. So it does make you sound more professional in the sense that you know what the market is. If you chose an edgy name like, oh,
I don't know, Electric Shock Treatment, it'd sound a bit like you were in the wrong music.
Names really cluster - there's a book which shows that girls called Cressida are statistically more likely to have brothers called Rufus, etc. In the House of Lords there's peer pressure to have names which are in line with their station - so to choose Lord Westminster or something grand would be a bit frowned upon compared with Lord Stoke Newington. There was a fashion a couple of years back for indie bands to be called 'The' names like The Music, The Killers and The The. So I'd guess there are the same focal names in Irish music & the same politics about whether you're choosing a name you 'deserve'.
A young band which wants to play seriously, with an Irish repertoire, is probably right have an Irish-sounding name. Like M/ise. A British-based duo changed their name from Chord to Luasca which sounded much more 'right'. One friend had a ceilidh band called 'The Floozies' which also did exactly what it said on the tin - they were playing for dancing not Arts Centre-type audiences. Young British Folk acts try & convey a funky-but-not-too-punky image.
By the way: if Roisin plays fiddle among lots of other stuff, her first solo album, if she makes one, could be called Roisin the Bow!!
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by S1obhan
Re: Pronouncing Irish
As Compton McKenzie wrote in "The Monarch Of The Glen" (nothing to do with the BBC series,by the way) people who crack on that they can pronounce Gallic only get away with it because nobody else can.
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by dafydd
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Can I play rubber trumpet in your elastic band?
# Posted on October 4th 2005 by dafydd
Re: Pronouncing Irish
I've heard of a band up Wester Ross way called "Cach Mòr". I don't know if you have the same word in Irish, but it's equivelant in Scots is Keech (not sure of the "correct" spelling here).
Getting away from Gaelic names and traditional music, I remember hearing of bands called:
Zanusi and the frigidaires
Carry Grant and the rest can walk
Stockton's other wing
etc.
PS dafydd, are you taking the p*ss or serious about your spelling there of "Gallic"?
# Posted on October 5th 2005 by Ron P
Re: Pronouncing Irish
My tongue was firmly in my cheek.
# Posted on October 5th 2005 by dafydd
Re: Pronouncing Irish
OK, I'll let you off then.
# Posted on October 5th 2005 by Ron P
Re: Pronouncing Irish
Och Man, yer far tae saft there Ron. Come on, Get tore intae him! After all, with a name like his, he must be able to speak Welsh - surely, so has no excuse!
There's also a great line in Whisky Galore, when the stuck up Sasanach raises his glass of Malt & says something like "Slange something or other" & the wee Islander replies sarcastically, in a lovely soft, West Highland accent "Aye, sure you have the Gaelic fine". Cracks me up every time I see it!
# Posted on October 5th 2005 by Ptarmigan